Epson V600 35mm scan very grainy

Hi All

I just got my Epson V600, I started to scam my 35 mm negatives, B&W and color.

It is very comfortable with the negative holder, but I noticed the quality is very poor. Scanned about 200 pictures and in all, I got this issue.

For most of the negatives I have also the printed photo, so I scan the photo and the results where better. From my understanding, the 35mm scans should be better but it is very grainy.

I saw many recommendations on this forum for this scanner for 35mm so I assume I'm doing something wrong, but I don't know what.

The negatives I scanned with 3200 (checked also 6400 but it is the same) dpi and the photo with 600 dpi and this is what I got:

 

 

This is my negative scan setup in Epson scan.

 

Thanks

Nir

I am not familiar with epson scanners, but I have read on internet that flatbed scanners give usable information as far as 1200 - 1700 dpi range. With canon flatbed one can choose either 2400 dpi or lower value. Usually flatbed film scans are soft so they benefit from slight unsharpmask sharpening. Modern era prints are usually made from files that give 300 - 400 dpi information. There is nothing wrong to scan print with 600 dpi, but quality difference to 300 dpi is hardly visible and process is slower. Your sample shows high magnification where even jpeg compression may become visible.

 

Program capture shows that there is lot of options that can be experimented or there is possibility to re-estimate motive for scanning old negatives and either get dedicated film scanner or discard idea.

I used a V600 for ten years. I scanned at 2400. My 6x7 medium formats are better than my 35mm scans. You can see both types on my Flickr page for comparison. So your 6x9's should be better too. More physical size reduces grain and just scans better. Your pictures appear to be crops of the whole so grain and noise is magnified. But they actually look pretty normal to me. Could you show us the whole picture of each format scanned at 3200 or 2400 and uploaded here to let's say 1200 on the long side?

 

Also, you might try to use a little noise reduction in post-editing although that counters sharpening. . But work one against the other until you're happy with the results. Also, uncheck sharpening in the scan. I do all sharpening in post. Aso, I use Masking in the sharpening panel of Lightroom

I use an old 4490 and get similar results. The V600 should be somewhat better but what you're calling very poor quality is actually pretty good. IMO, a flatbed scanner can give very good results on medium format, but it will never make a fussy person happy with 35mm. It can give a usable result, but it's not a serious film scanner. I know that's not what anybody wants to hear, but the resolution just isn't there.

Ijust bought the v700 had the same problem. My workout (using Epson Scan):

1. Cleaning rhe scanner glass from the inside. (It's easy to get it disassembled just 4 screws)

2. Using the free version of nik collection. Define.

3. You have the color efex too. There's a filter named Remove color cast, works great.

4. And finally, people don't know that, but you can still ask for the free version of nik collection. Here is the link:

 

Nik Collection 2012 - Nik Collection by DxO

My experience scanning negatives or slides with a flatbed is that prints are sharp up to about 5x magnification but not beyond. So if you want sharp prints, here are the approximate limits:

 

8x10 format: 40x50-inch prints

4x5 format: 20x25-inch prints

120 format: 11x14-inch prints

35mm format: 5x7-inch prints

The blue/magenta cast doesn't help, by emphasising green channel noise or 'grain'.

 

Get the skin colour right and it won't look so bad.

 

You can also get an interference or 'aliasing' effect between the scanner pixels and the average dye-cloud clumping spacing.

Nothing much you can do about that, except use a slower film or buy a better resolution scanner.

Edited February 25, 2021 by rodeo_joe|1